Durban: House of Immigrants

Conversations overheard, statements delivered. Zimbabweans in South Africa, one finds out her study permit has been ‘lost’ by the university – her life is on hold as she frantically calls up office after office. Another is on the phone checking on the status of something, quickly moving from a polite enquiry to an emotional exchange – “you know I don’t want to be here, I’m just asking for information”, tears in his eyes as he slams down the phone. Someone stuck. And the handsome young man who came while we were here, and left while we were still here, back and forth from Zimbabwe, under the radar, fighting the fight. When he left, I said, lightly, as one might in my world, ‘hope it’s a good trip’. His response was determined. “It will”.

Immigrants, fighters, homeless and transient. All over the world, it’s the same, and yet another gulf that separates people – those that have and those that haven’t moved across boundaries in any way other than those predetermined, for the few predetermined.

And this is only middle-class strife. Sunpuppy (left) has found a home finally but still shakes when we take her out of the house (she was dognapped once), straining at the leash in the direction of the house of immigrants.

Hard out there …

Blackprof.com blogger Paul Butler talks about two articles in the Washington Post on “Hustle n Flow” – a black article and a white article.

The white article (front page of the Style section), by Philip Kennicott, begins hilariously:

“At dinner, say a month from now, perhaps it will be your very unhip great aunt who says it. Someone skimps her on dessert, so she looks plaintively down the table, waits for a moment of silence and then delivers the line — ‘It’s hard out here for a pimp.’ “

The other day, Boondocks had this to say (thanks Eric!)

Sundowners, books & a party

We will be hosting a party at Ike’s bookstore in Durban to celebrate our matrimonials in South Africa.

Ike’s is on the second floor of a two-story colonial building, with shelves of books all over, books laid out on tables, many old and rare, especially from/about countries and lands in Africa. It’s not packed with serpentine towers of books facing you at every step, like bookstores in Mumbai or Delhi, but has broad walkways and much mulling space between bookcases. There’s a little room off the main one, with a lovely old table and nicer bookshelves with some of the more precious finds. But the best part is stepping out of the large french doors onto the balcony that encircles the store. There, there’s ample room for a sofa, chairs, table – calling out for marrying the cocktail hour with a good sunset, conversation or perhaps that simplest of pleasures – reading a good book. Very civilized.

An example to follow

A friend read the recent businessweek article on Dan Gillmor and Bayosphere in which I’m quoted (accurately) and said “guess who got the negative quote”. I hope he was kidding, but it forced me to think about the quote, and any future quotes. What’s the difference between a negative quote and a critical quote? There are rare cases where I feel the former is justified, whereas the latter is probably the norm for me. But to the readers eye, perhaps the line is blurred. If you have a tip to help differentiate one from the other, I’m all ears.

Bad School

Synablog, new entrant on my blogroll, reminds us about how crazy life can be when he tries to log onto smashcast at school. Read More.

Businessweek on Smashcast

Heather Green from business week captures the spirit of smashcast.org in her most recent blog entry.

Secret killer: School transfers

Smashcast.org goes live tomorrow (Preview here; Brainbytes preview here).

This week’s post, and next week’s post are going to veer away from talking directly about science and technology, but instead bring up environmental and contextual issues that impact whether smashcasters have the peace of mind to allow them to focus on their academics. This week’s post, “Top High Shcool Acceptance“, describes the travails of a top student who has to move to Kentucky and wants to get into a good public school. The school has its own rules about who gets in, how and when. None of these seem flexible enough to accomodate families that need to move to deal with financial hardship. When these families move, the timing isn’t perfect, and rarely aligns with expected application dates. So if you don’t move proactively and control your moving time to school application deadlines, sounds like there are not many options for your child …

In related news, from a recent series of articles in the LATimes – “Why Does High School Fail So Many?” (thanks Jessica):

The more students transferred, the less likely they were to graduate; an ominous development in a district in which one-quarter of the students change schools annually. Of 18 students who attended three or more schools, only one graduated.

Relevance of Visual Design: Zero

Blue & black, dry as ice. Bookfinder’s web-site seems to have stayed the way it is forever. And that hasn’t done a damned thing to it’s runaway success, which I’m defining as the passion and loyalty it inspires in it’s customers, and the number of back-handed compliments from critics.

Bulla & Everyone Else

Everyone sings in India. Birj mentioned this in passing. I had forgotten it. This is the song, he said, that all the kids on the streets were singing when I was last there.

Friday morning, I put on Rabbi in the car. Bulla streams out as the sun glances off downtown San Francisco. I’m approaching the city, on the bay bridge. Rabbi’s sound, Bulleh Shah’s words, kids with nothing who keep singing the words of a Sufi poet from the mid-18th century.

Nor did I create the difference of faith
Nor did I create adam-eve
Nor did I name myself
Beginning or end I know just the self
Do not acknowledge duality
There’s none wiser than I
Who is this Bulla Shah
Bulla! I know not who I am

Open Access & Fetal Pain

Peter Suber with Open Access News and John Wilbanks from Science Commons highlight (1, 2) the open access argument in the recent furore over fetal pain and the JAMA review. That’s in addition to the UC Davis Intellectual Property & Social Justice Blog (thanks Leena!)

(Since the original post was cross-posted on Bayosphere, I’m having to use trackbacks, I apologize for the confusion).